stronghold of the bashar al-assad, the bbc gains rare access to one legion of syria still trying to ignore the conflict -- one region of syria still trying to ignore the conflict. in las vegas, the housing crisis has left people wishing they had not taken the gamble. >> i was left over extended. >> welcome to our viewers on public television in america and also around the globe. it has now been four weeks since the attack on the libyan consulate in benghazi, which left the u.s. ambassador and three others dead. today, american rule makers were demanding answers about whether the levels of security were enough. testifying before a congressional committee, state department official said the correct number of agents were in place. during this election season, this issue has become controversial. our north america editor reports. in the american ambassador to libya, chris stevens, and three of his colleagues -- >> the american ambassador to libya, chris stevens, and three of his colleagues died in the attack. they had repeatedly asked for tighter security. initially, the american government th

ensure they obtain the arms they need to defeat assad's tanks and helicopters and fighter jets. >> are armed, but by whom? that takes some talking. the former nato allied commander is supporting the campaign and to the right is kristen silverberg, ambassador to the union. before today, mitt romney had not specifically called for arming the rebels and this country is really not too keen on it and nor are they too opposed, it seems. if you look at it, 48% favor doing so. 47% oppose doing so, but this is new from mitt romney. but how are we supposed to know who the good guys are, who the bad guys are and is he suggesting for a moment that america send the guns? >> no, what governor romney outlined today was a plan to work with the region, turkey, qatar, the saudis, to make sure they have the weapons they need. the two things we consistently hear from the region is first from these opposition groups themselves, that they don't have the weapons they need to overthrow assad. and second, from our partners in the region, that they feel constrained by u.s. policy from doing things to su

freedom and he would do more to help the opposition against bashar al- assad. >> i'll work with our partners to identify and organize members of the opposition who share our whoes and then ensure that they obtain the arms they need to defeat assad's tanks and helicopters and fighter jets. >> reporter: romney also delivered his harshest assessment yet of the ministstration's evolving response to the attacks in libya. assauls latest assault can't be blamed on a reprehensible video insulting islam-- despite the heministration's attempts to convince us of that for so long. no, as the administration has finally conceded, these attacks erat the deliberate work of terrorists. they use violence to impose violr dark ideology and others. >> reporter: romney has been critical of the way the eyesident has handled libya, he iticalted humanitarian aid when ibe president advocated that but esidenhe president last year called for qaddafi's ouster, scott, romney accused him of omneng ad hoc determinations and saying he didn't have a long- term strategy. >> pelley: as you might imagine, lo jan, the o

the mullas in iran were attacking their people. we should not have called the assad a reformer when he was turning guns on his own people. we should always stand up for peace, democracy and individual rights. we should not be imposing devastating defense cuts because what that does, when we equivocate on our values -- >> here -- >> it makes us more weak. it projects weakness. when we look weak, our adversaries are more willing to -- >> with all due respect, that's a bunch of malarky-- >> reporter: why's that so? >> that's not true. >> reporter: be specific. >> i will be very specific. the lect our embassy security, the congressman here cut embassy security in his budget by $300 million below what we asked for. number 1. so much for the embassy security piece. number 2, governor romney, before he knew the facts, before he even knew that our ambassador was killed, he was out making a political statement, panned by the media around the world. and this talk about this -- this weakness -- i don't understand what my friend's talking about here. this is a president who has gone out and don

mullahs in iran were attacking their people. we should have not called assad a reformer when he was turning his provided guns on his own people. we should always stand up for peace, for democracy, for individual rights. and we should not be imposing these devastating defense cuts because what that does when we equivocate on our values, when we show that we're cutting our own defense, it makes us more weak. it projects weakness. when we look weak our adversaries are much more willing to test us, they're more brazen in attacks and our allies are more willing -- >> with all due respect that's a bunch of malarky. >> why is that so? >> not a single thing he said is accurate. >> be specific. >> i will be very specific. number one, this lecture on embassy security, the congressman here cut embassy security in his budget by $300 million below what we asked for. number one. so much for the embassy security piece. number two, governor romney, before he knew the facts, before he even knew that our ambassador was killed, he was out making a political statement which was panned by the media arou

region are greatly affected by assad's brutal campaign, so we will continue to coordinate closely with our partners moving forward as we have in the past. >> u.s. boots on the ground right next to a war zone -- is this an escalation? >> it is not an escalation. it is working with a partner to deal with the impacts of assad's brutality. >> as you know, many of the administration's critics would like to see a more active role by these troops. >> our position on providing military legal assistance has not changed. it is our position that what is needed in syria is not more weapons. what is needed is a political transition. you note critics who seem to support taking some sort of harder, more militaristic line, but they will not come forward and draw any real distinctions from what they are proposing compared to what the president is doing. if someone in congress or elsewhere wants to suggest that the united states should engage militarily directly in syria, they should say so. the president's position is we need to continue to provide and manage humanitarian assistance to the syrian

attacking their people. we should not have called bashar assad a reformer when he was turning his russian-provided guns on his own people. we should always stand up for peace, for democracy, for individual rights. and we should not be imposing these devastating defense cuts because what that does when we equivocate on our values, it makes us more weak. it projects weakness, and when we look weak, our adversaries are much more willing to test us, and our allies -- biden: with all due respect, that's a bunch of malarkey. >> moderator: and why is that so? biden: not a single thing he said was accurate. >> moderator: be specific. biden: i will be very specific. number one, this lecture on embassy security, the congressman here cut security by $300 million below what we asked for, number one. so much for the embassy security piece. number two, governor romney -- before he knew the facts, before he even knew that our ambassador was killed, he was out making a political statement which was panned by the media around the world. and this talk about this weakness, i don't understand what my friend'

region. attempting to identify the people who deserve the help so when assad goes there will be a legitimate government that follows on. and all of this loose talk of my friend governor romney and the congressman about how we could do so much more in there. what more would they do other than put american boots to the ground. the last thing america needs is to get in another ground war in the middle east requiring tens of thousands if not well over a hundred thousand american forces. they are the facts. they are the facts. now every time the governor has asked about this he doesn't say -- he goes off on a whole lot of verbiage, but when he gets pressed he says no he would not do anything different than we are doing now? are they proposing putting american troops on the ground? if they do they should speak up and say so. but that's not what they are saying. we are doing it exactly like we need to do to identify those forces who will provide for a stable government and not cause a regional war. >> congressman ryan? >> ryan: nobody is proposing to send american troops to syria. let me

assad's tanks, helicopters and fighter jets. nbc's first read pointing out that reports of cia doing something covertly like this in syria. so something going on as we speak. the u.s. government did this with libya. basically arming the opposition. and you know, your men ri's men ri is only my friend for so long. is that a wise approach? >> no. i have spent time on this issue. there's no doubt providing nonlethal communication support is extraordinary important and secretary clinton announced massive amount of humanitarian assistance and ku dos to the administration for doing that. the real problem here is that there's this struggle within the romney campaign itself over syria between neo-conservatives to militarily intervene and those who actually are more reticent and the problem is that mr. romney flip flops between one group and the other and can't quite decide which one is more important. the bottom line, however, for purposes of american interest in the middle east, arming a rag tag group of rebels at this point in time is inconsistent with understanding when's going to emerge

people in the region. attempting to identify the people who deserve the help so when assad goes there will be a legitimate government that follows on. and all of this loose talk of my friend governor romney and the congressman about how we could do so much more in there. what more would they do other than put american boots to the ground. the last thing america needs is to get in another ground war in the middle east requiring tens of thousands if not well over a hundred thousand american forces. they are the facts. they are the facts. now every time the governor has asked about this he doesn't say -- he goes off on a whole lot of verbiage but when he gets pressed, he says no he would not do anything different than we are doing now? are they proposing putting american troops on the ground? if they do they should speak up and say so. but that's not what they are saying. we are doing it exactly like we need to do to identify those forces who will provide for a stable government and not cause a regional war. >> congressman ryan? >> ryan: nobody is proposing to send american troops

revolution was up and starting when the mu las in iran for attacking their people and not call assad a reformer when he was turning guns on his own people. we should always stand up for peace, for democracy, for individual rights. we should not be imposing these devastating defense cuts because what that does when we equivocate on our values, when we show we are slowing our defense, shows weakness. when we with weak, adversaries attack us and -- biden: with all do respect. that's a bunch of molarky. nothing you said is accurate. >> moderator: be specific. biden: i will be very specific. number of one, the lecture on embassy security, the congressman here cut the budget by $300 million below what we asked for. number one. so much for the embassy security piece. number two, governor romney, before he knew the facts, before he even knew our ambassador was killed was out making a political statement which was panned by the media around the world, and this talk about this -- this weakness, i don't understand what my phren's talking about here. this is a president who went out and has done e

-assad a couple of years ago about getting a new facility. do we have the task force that is looking at providing the said that we need to provide that level of protection and to relocate some of these embassies? >> we do, sir. we have a strategic plan. we know which embassies are more endangered than others. we're working through that. there are limitations on offense. i can only construct so many new facilities each -- there are limitations on affianced. i can only instruct so many new facilities. >> in addition to the security team, there was a rapid response force that was located in the next -- annex. how many are in that rapid reform -- rapid response task force? >> serve, there were seven and their job was also to -- >> point of order. >> i would renew my concern that we're getting into an area that is classified and should be classified. dealing with the map is one issue. the markings on the map were terribly inappropriate. the activities there could cost lives. >> on the point of order -- >> may i speak on the point of order? >> this whole hearing is responding to allegation

sitting on the sidelines for missing the opportunity to topple assad and quote deliver a bad defeat to iran yes he actually said that so it's not clear whether this latest announcement about jordan is the administration's way of showing teeth in these in this election campaign or whether an intervention in syria is really coming soon one of the reasons why the rebels refuse to settle for a negotiated solution through dialogue is the signal that they get that sense that support is on the way that there will be an intervention but everybody understands without a negotiating so was negotiated solution the bloodshed will continue so the signals that the rebels are getting including the news about u.s. troops standing by across the border could be making it much harder to come to that negotiated solution. a correspondent in washington d.c. independent journalist mel bowie thinks border protection is just a pretext to press harder for a change of the syrian regime throughout the duration of the conflict in syria we've heard a lot of talk about the creation of humanitarian corridors or buffer

brooke baldwin. the news is now. >>> a man close to bashar al assad's regime defects. and speaks to cnn. >> translator: he seemed worried all day long. we rarely saw him smiling. >>> plus, a consulate's attacked, an ambassador is killed, and this lawmaker wants answers. jason chaffetz joins me live, fresh off his trip to libya. >>> and the magic johnson tells me about an in-home test that could save your life. jack, you're a little boring. boring. boring. [ jack ] after lauren broke up with me, i went to the citi private pass page and decided to be...not boring. that's how i met marilyn... giada... really good. yes! [ jack ] ...and alicia. ♪ this girl is on fire [ male announcer ] use any citi card to get the benefits of private pass. more concerts, more events, more experiences. [ jack ] hey, who's boring now? [ male announcer ] get more access with the citi card. [ crowd cheering, mouse clicks ] ♪ playing a lone hand ♪ my life begins today ♪ ♪ fly by night away from here ♪ ♪ change my life again ♪ ♪ fly by night, goodbye my dear ♪ ♪ my ship isn't coming ♪ and i

taj of how that sounded. >> we wouldn't refer to bashar assad as a reformer. we're not projecting weakness abroad. we shouldn't have called bashar assad a reformer. this invites weakness. >> the bashar assad a reformer. that was his only line on syria policy. largely was rhetoric kalt. now when you talk the three hot spots in the world, not necessarily in the entire world, which is iran, the war in afghanistan and syria, there wasn't as far as i can tell any policy disagreement that they were leveling. take a look. >> these are the most crippling sanctions in the history of sanctions. >> thank hechks we had these sanctions in place. >> what more would they do other than put american boots to the ground. >> nobody is proposing to send troops to syria. >> we are leaving in 2014, period. >> we agree with the administration on their 2014 transition. >> michael, what did you make of this? >> when i saw paul ryan talk about afghanistan, it was like watching bambi on ice. it's like he had a boy scout capping p trip there once and saw the mountains and thought he was an expert. look, very

whether or not it fulfills its own promises to its own people. in syria the assad regime continues to wage war against it's own people even as territory slips from its graps. i recently announced humanitarian aid for the humanitarian opposition and we remain committed with our partners to increase pressure on the regime. and in yemen where we supported negotiations that achieved a transition, we are working to prevent al qaeda from threatening these emerging fradge jill democratic institutions and prevebt them from finding a save hivepb to launch attacks. when i met with the king of jordan last month we discussed continuing reforms to move his country toward more democracy and property. so in all of these places and many others, the united states is helping the people of those nations chart their own decemberty anies and realize the full measure of their own human dignity. dignity is a word that means many things to different people in can cull chures but it does speak to something universe until all of us. as one egyptian observed freedom and dignity are more important than food and

and clearly as the president said, assad's days are over and they will eventually come to an end so we need to be ready to support those, provide as much support to the moderate forces as they can in the interim. i do want to, if i can, just say one thing about dov's comments about iran which are related to this issue. he does set up a strawman about the sanctions on iran and the 20 countries that have gotten off the hook. i think it's interesting to note that it does really matter. they ain't iran sanctions as a critical piece of legislation in the '90s to punish iran and for those who supported sip put petroleum. zero companies for sanctions under the iran sanctions act, zero. when the president came to office he very aggressively moved on sanctions to the existing authorities and he then worked with the congress almost immediately to sign a new comprehensive piece of legislation, of which multiple companies across the world including chinese companies and russian companies had sanctions. the 20 exemptions that dov likes to talk about where a wholly different piece of authority, w

assad about getting a new facility there. do we have a task force that is looking at providing the setback that we need to provide that level of protection and to relocate some of these embassies? >> we do, sir. we have a strategic plan. we know which indices are more in danger than others. we are working through that. but there are limitations on funds. i can only construct some any new facilities each year depending on the funds i have available to me. >> i want to go back to one. . your written testimony, page 2 first paragraph, in addition to the security team you have there, i think you described it as a rapid response force that was located in the amex. how many folks are in that rapid? do you know how many are in that rapid response task force were team? >> there were seven. -- >> point of order. >> i am worried that we are getting into an area that is classified and should be classified. dealing with the map is one issue. i believe that the markings on that map were terribly inappropriate. the activity there could cost lives. >> on the point of order. this whole hearing is